1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to communication systems. In one aspect, the present invention relates to a method and system for achieving header acquisition during signal reception.
2. Related Art
In recent years, transmission of data via satellite has increased considerably. Recently, the number of personal satellite receivers has also been increasing. As large satellite receiving antennas and expensive receivers are replaced by smaller and less expensive equipment, the demand for such systems continues to rise. As the demand for satellite communication systems rises, systems which have increased performance have a distinct market advantage. Improving designs and increasing the level of system integration within satellite receivers can offer the dual benefits of decreasing system costs and increasing performance.
An example of such a design improvement area is the acquisition and synchronization of a received signal at a receiver. Conventional receivers typically synchronize with a received signal using correlator-based approaches to identify a peak correlator value based on a comparison of stored training sequence symbols with received header symbols contained in a single frame of data, where the process may be repeated with one or more frames to confirm the peak value by re-generating the peak value. Such receivers may not perform adequately in noisy environments. In addition to the complexity of circuit design requirements for receiving, demodulating, detecting and synchronizing with a data stream, the ever-increasing need for higher speed communications systems imposes additional performance requirements and resulting costs for communications systems. In order to reduce costs, communications systems are increasingly implemented using Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) techniques. The level of integration of communications systems is constantly increasing to take advantage of advances in integrated circuit manufacturing technology and the resulting cost reductions. This means that communications systems of higher and higher complexity are being implemented in a smaller and smaller number of integrated circuits.
Accordingly, an improved method and system for acquisition and synchronization of a received signal at a receiver are needed that are economical in resources and that may be integrated in a single chip receiver, such as in a satellite communication systems. Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings and detailed description which follow.